I’m heading out today at 10.30 so I thought that Very Quick Cup Cakes would be the order of the morning. They were fun to make. I got to use the Kitchen Wizz and despite only having very small-sized cup cake cases, I managed to make some more with grease proof paper.
I knew these cup cakes would be a hit with the kids and given that there’s no baking in the house (believe it or not), we could do with them. I enjoyed making them. I watched the Great British Bake-Off Australia while I prepared them.
Man oh man, their technical challenge looked hard. It was Maggie’s Dried Apricot Pavlova, which had three layers, dried apricot butter, dried apricot curd and dried apricot poached in a verjuice syrup with crème fraiche. The result looked amazing, but a lot of technique and work. I guess that’s why it was a technical challenge!!
As I was going out for an 11am meeting I grabbed a Pasteis de Nata out of the freezer for breakfast with sliced fresh peaches. This Portuguese custard tart is the most delicious thing I have ever tasted. 
When we were in Lisbon I ate one every day. The pastry shops there are outstanding, as good if not better than Paris! I was amazed and to discover this custard tart was a revelation. Recently I found a place in Auckland that makes them, (an authentic Lisbon baker) so I buy them by the half-dozen and freeze them, a bit naughty!! 
But anyway, while I was in Portugal, I bought a recipe book of Portuguese cooking and now have the recipe which I have attempted a few times. It is on “Recipes” page.
Anyway, just as I was finishing the icing for the cupcakes later in the afternoon, which by the way had a shine on it like I have never seen,
Katie walked in from school with low blood sugar, so the cupcakes were perfect.
The perfect sugar fix for low blood sugar!
